Busy Week For Sharks' Top Brass 

Busy Week For Sharks' Top Brass

The San Jose Sharks' front office has been busy this week making transactions, negotiating player contracts and pondering trade possibilities.

The Sharks called up center Patrick Rissmiller and defenseman Christian Ehrhoff from the Cleveland Barons, the Sharks top development affiliate of the American Hockey League.

Rissmiller was signed as a free agent on Sept. 30, 2002. He currently leads all Barons scorers with 13 points and is tied for 11th among all AHL scorers in 11 games. He will be making his NHL debut despite being in his second season of professional hockey after playing for four seasons at Holy Cross.

Ehrhoff, who is playing his first season of professional hockey in North America, was assigned to Cleveland on Oct. 22. He was originally selected by San Jose in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft.

In eight games with the Barons, he was a +3 and posted three points along with 14 penalty minutes. Ehrhoff registered zero points and two penalty minutes in three games with San Jose

In order to make room on their roster, they sent right wing Niko Dimitrakos back down to the Barons and placed Mark Smith on the injured list.

Dimitrakos was selected by San Jose in the fifth round of the 1999 NHL Entry Draft. The Sharks brought him up from the Barons on Oct. 27 and he tallied three points while playing in six games for the big club. In five games with the Barons this season, Dimitrakos scored seven points and had a +7 plus/minus rating. He was named AHL "Player of the Week" for the week of October 19.

Smith suffered a chest contusion in an open ice hit Thursday night against St. Louis.


I wrote in a previous article about the importance of signing players before training camp. This past summer Sharks Executive Vice President and General Manager Doug Wilson was able to get all his restricted free agents signed before camp. It's equally as important to extend the contracts of potential unrestricted free agents before they expire in order for a franchise to keep talented players.

This week Wilson extended the contract of forward Scott Thornton for two years at an undisclosed sum of money. The new deal begins in 2004-05 and runs through the 2005-06 season.

Thornton was scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent in July of next year, but instead the Sharks now have his services for at least two more years and possess a club option for a third year.

Thornton is currently tied for second on the club in scoring with nine points and is currently serving as one of the Sharks two alternate captains.

Last season, the 6-foot-3, 225-pound left wing only scored 21 points because he missed 41 games due to injuries. In 2001-02, he finished second on the Sharks in goal scoring with 26 and had 42 points. He recorded 36 points during his first season with San Jose in 2000-01.

Thornton signed with San Jose as a free agent from Dallas on July 1, 2000. The London, Ontario native was originally drafted by Toronto in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft.


It is likely that sometime during the season the Sharks will trade one of their two backup goaltenders, Miikka Kiprusoff or Vesa Toskala. Many fans and members of the media believe Kiprusoff will be traded because he has not played in a game this season. Instead Toskala has played in a few games and been the immediate backup to Nabokov when he has not played. Toskala has played well in the games he's started for the Sharks. It would appear that the Sharks are confident in Toskala's abilities in net and they don't want to risk an injury to Kiprusoff prior to a possible trade.